Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1887-01-27

ine,ement2 All natural products, auch
as wool, sugar, grain, iron, cotton, &C.,
often yield to their possessors an mn
earned profit, more Questionable because
often the result of conspiracies and
schemes TO the detriment of the public.
"The owner of land cannot by his own
personal efforts increase its value ex-
cept by acts OF advantage to the CON-
munity by building railroads, by erect
ing desirable buildings, by fostering in
dustries; whereas the owner of products
cannot by his own personal efforts in
crease their value except by producing
corner, by making them scarce and there
by imposing tax on consumers. Our
theorists are really at wat with colnpar-
atively innocent form of unearned mere
ment, but shut their eyes to a guilty
form of it."
But suppose Mr. Georges scheme for
appropriating unearned increase in tie
value of land carried out, what would be
the consequence 1t would destroy all
sense Of security in any kind Of property.
It would force into litigation every
sayings-bank, trust company and life in
surauce company in the country; it would
rob millions of persons of their savings,
impoverishing old age. young children
and dependent women; it would bring
ankruptcy upon tens of thousands of
traders and impair credit everywhere.
No class would suffer more than the poor,
who hold in their savings through the
savings banks liens amounting to thous'
ands of millions upon landed property
much of which would be irretrievably
lost.
The good that is pictured by Henri.
George TO flow from the naturalization
of land is a dream; the evil woult
be unreasonable. The ambition Il
improve would be paralyze. WI
should see state tenants going from
farm to farm, cultivating thu
fields solely for their Immediate yield
: neither planting orchards, nor fertilizing
nor keeping in repair fences or drains
AS soon as one piece of land would b
} exhausted the tenant would move TO ar
? other. Every motive for careful cultivs
> ton and preservation would be replace
by motives for immediate profit. Nor
this all Under such an enlargement Q
!. the powers OF government, jobbery an
q corruption would have a field for thei
b operation that the most sanguine Twee
i never dreamed of.
u Can we increase the prosperity mn
g we'll being of community by putting
b penalty on success Can people a,
l. vance under laws that check enterpris
n that put fine on sagacity, that repre-
s energy, that destroy the liberty of Il
k subject There are possibly some evi
1t that arise from the private ownership
!, land, but it is one of Il
y greatest stimulants to right DOH
IS that exists it excites ambition
If it promotes industry; it induces thr
e and abstemious habits; it is the hope
Of youth and the pride of age. Anarchy
u impossible amoug people welded to d
8. land. What if few persons in the gre
ne cities become rich by the increase of t
ne value Of land what is this to the welfa
us. Of the millions that have secured sm
N footholds ON the earth and built til,
DIS, roof-trees Y
ice Every thinking man should procure t
,ay February Popular Science Monthly a
per read carefully the admirable article
nd which we have endeayored TO give t
err, gist in the foregoing.